Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings announced the results of a recently published clinical research study that demonstrates improved physician adherence to chronic kidney disease (CKD) treatment guidelines through the use of the company's innovative clinical decision support (CDS) report. Treatment guidelines provide evidence-based information to help physicians and patients better manage diseases and chronic conditions. The company's CDS report presents the CKD guidelines information in an easy-to-use format with clear action steps for the physician and patient to follow.

The study assessed whether physician adherence to practice guidelines for the evaluation and management of patients diagnosed with CKD was affected by the physician's receipt of LabCorp's CDS report. The study compared more than 12,000 stage 3 and 4 CKD patients whose physicians received LabCorp's guideline-based CDS reports to almost 43,000 matched control CKD patients whose physicians did not receive the CDS reports on their adherence to these guidelines. The researchers found that physicians receiving LabCorp's proprietary CDS reports were 29% to 88% more likely to order CKD-related testing in accordance with guidelines than those physicians who did not receive the reports.

Primary care physicians showed the improvement in guideline adherence following receipt of the CDS report. In addition, nephrologists also showed significant improvement in guideline adherence after receipt of the report. These findings demonstrate that LabCorp's CDS report is an important tool for all physicians responsible for managing the care of patients with CKD and can help to improve outcomes and reduce the costs associated with this disease.

LabCorp's CKD clinical decision support report provides analyses of lab results and treatment guidelines at the point of care. The CDS report was developed by recognized CKD experts, many of whom were members of the guideline development committees, and are routinely updated to reflect the current standard of care. The CDS report also includes patient education tools when requested.

Clinicians using LabCorp can opt to receive this type of reporting whenever they order serum creatinine testing and the accompanying estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) result is less than 60, suggesting stage 3 CKD or higher. The CKD report is part of a suite of proprietary enhanced decision support reports available only from LabCorp to assist clinicians and patients in the management of common chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. LabCorp delivered more than 5 million enhanced reports in 2015, a significant increase over prior years.